Ireland vs Croatia, Euro 2012: Open Thread

It’s been a long time since Ireland was last seen in a European Championship. Amazingly, it was 1988. For those of you who live in the United States, many of you may have fond memories of the Irish national team who played in the United States in 1994. It’s no wonder therefore that people in the United States have a soft spot for the Republic of Ireland team, for a number of reasons.

This could be the first match of Euro 2012 that becomes a boring, defensive-minded game if Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni gets his way. Depending on your allegiances, this could be a pleasing scenario for you, or not. Some Irishmen may ask, where has my Ireland gone? The free-flowing, route one football side of the ’80s and ’90s. No matter how you look at it, though, it should be an intriguing match to watch against a Croatian side that plays beautiful football.

Before, during or after the match, post your rants, raves, questions or observations in the comments section below.

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13 Comments

Sorry cannot feel any fondness towards Ireland. They have no business playing in this tournament. Not after Armenia got robbed in their last qualifying game against Ireland and last minute behind the curtain machinations to get Ireland seeded in the play-offs.

On the more positive note it will be nice to see a renovated stadium in Poznan. Used to be a pretty shabby arena with awful awful pitch.

3 world class teams in Spain, Croatia and Italy and then there’s “Lumberjack United”. The world has moved to the XXI century in football, the Irish are still playing a XIX century style of football, “kick and run” and lots of “honest” players out there.

Corluka should have known better not to committ that foul for the tying goal: that’s the only way the Irish can score on you.

I doubt that that cousins of “Horticulturalist United’ would fare any better tomorrow. They can’t put 2 passes together. If Henderson, Welbeck & Co. are the future of English football, the future is really really bleak.

very proud of Croatia tonight, it was more comfortable than what I expected, Ireland really only threatened on set pieces and the last 15-20 minutes when Croatia sat back. I still don’t think we will get out the group but at least we give ourselves a good shot